Articles by Biodiversivist

Better control over reproduction is still crucial.

A few days ago, I received an email update from the Sierra Club's newsletter, PopNews:

There's nothing better than to end the year with a victory! On December 12th, after years of effort made by Choice New Jersey, a coalition of organizations, including Sierra Club, Contraceptive Equity Bill A292 passed the New Jersey Assembly by a vote of 57-14. The bill mandates that insurance companies who cover wellness medication prescriptions such as those for diabetes, high blood pressure, and especially if they cover Viagra, must also cover female contraceptives.

It is incredible that they had to work so hard for so long for what seems like such a simple thing. There is hardly a better way to limit environmental impact while improving the quality of someone's life than to help him or her avoid an unplanned pregnancy. One little question: Why only female contraception?

Will Washington state take on Big Oil?

The front-page story for the Seattle Weekly tells us that Washington State is going to take on Big Oil and that:

The sexy star of the industry is biodiesel. Although there is only one biodiesel refinery in the state, which employs 12 people, and no biodiesel crops are grown commercially in Washington, biodiesel has captured the media's, the public's, and the politicians' imaginations.

Part of the plan includes a new law that will require the use of up to 10 percent biofuels to run vehicles in the state. This reminds me of how the old Soviet Union ran its economy (into the ground). "You will produce and buy whatever the state tells you to produce and buy regardless of cost because we know what is best for you. The free market is for capitalist pigs." Nevermind that much of this biofuel will eventually be coming from big oil, or at least its equivalent. Turns out that Shell Oil has invested in a company building a cellulosic ethanol plant just one state over.

Has Shell invested in ethanol to save the planet or to capitalize on the money to be made when a state mandates usage of a given product regardless of cost, insuring a captive market for that product? I wonder.

Some environmentalists wake up to the dangers of biofuels

Well, I have resisted the urge to post on this subject for over a week now. Take a look at this picture from BirdLife International. Like a bolt from the blue, a number of environmental organizations and individuals (BirdLife, the World Wildlife Fund, Friends of the Earth, Forest.org, Mongabay.com, Greenpeace, and the European Environmental Bureau) have suddenly and collectively realized that biofuels may not be such a great idea. A divide is growing between environmentalists who are enamoured with or will profit from a fuel you can grow (call them the enthusiasts) and environmentalists who do not think biofuels are worth destroying rainforests for (me).

George Monbiot sums it all up in an amazing article. Take the time to read it, especially if you don't think you want to hear what he has to say. The quote at the top of his web page is especially poignant:

Tell people something they know already, and they will thank you for it. Tell them something new, and they will hate you for it.

UN climate deal on rainforests a good thing

Finally, some good news. From Mongabay:

Friday, at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Montreal, the U.N. agreed to a proposal that allows developing nations to receive financial compensation from industrialized countries for agreeing to preserve their rainforests. Environmentalists hope the deal -- set forth by ten developing countries led by Papua New Guinea -- will give developing nations a financial reason to get more involved in climate talks while safeguarding globally important ecosystems...

... Deforestation accounts for 20-25 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, or about two billion tonnes of carbon per year, and slowing deforestation may play an important role slowing climate change. Research released last week suggests that tropical forests are more effective at fighting higher temperatures than temperature forests, which may actually have a net warming effect on climate.